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Not a Douglas hater

I am not a Douglas-hater.

He is playing hurt. His defense against quick guards is simply not good at all. He is not a point guard, his floor vision, dribbling, and passing skills are just not good, let alone elite. As a shooter, his shot selection is not great, but he can be a good streak shooter and aggressive defender against slower guards.

As an energy SG reserve when fully healthy, he can be a reasonable role player on a good team. He is not a total scrub. It was unfair to him to ask him to play as the starting or even primary backup PG on a team where the stars become ball-stoppers if asked to create off the dribble. That's all.

Wasn't he our Jeremy Lin of last season? Oh how the might have fallen.

Will this boy get his step back? What's ailing him?

Last season he looked like Jeremy Lin with the 3-point shot of Novak.

TD wasn never our J Lin. He's always been horrible playing the PG. Where he thrived at times last season was simply just shooting the basketball. He's an undersized SG at most and a reserve on any team. Honestly, for that production I'd rather have N8 back. Especially sinceTD's on-ball defense has taken a step back as well.

At least you could count on N8 to drive to the basket (often drawing fouls)and not settle for jumpers.

Wasn't he our Jeremy Lin of last season? Oh how the might have fallen.

Will this boy get his step back? What's ailing him?

Last season he looked like Jeremy Lin with the 3-point shot of Novak.

u can not bash....Bibby....TD....Shump....and a Baron Davis who is using
any and every reason not to be apart of our no-plan offense.
Do u want to play 35+ minutes per game in this 2012 schedule as the Knicks PG?
penetrating through 2 or 3 defenders every time on offense? u have to be quick.

Toney Douglas is our Ben Gordon scorer, his best role as a PG is trapping &
presuring oponents PG on defense. He didnt have any floor leading skills when
we draft him, plus he didnt pickup a trick or two to use at the point in his 3
seasons in a wide open offense with no picks or screens set for him to
go around and pass to an open cutter teammate.
Felton was looking like a bum in the same offense until Stat came out
to pick & screen for Felton on every halfcourt set.
Toney Douglas needed a season with Chauncey Billups as his teammate to
develope his floor-leadership skills on offense.

Lin has a very low unique dribble to get by double-defenders, plus Lin's IQ
at passing to a (moving) bigman has been getting better each game.
For some reason Lin did not fall for the bad-habit of tosssing-up 3-balls to
please a certain person, Lin has been working intellegently on his passing-
skills with teammates which boost Jeremy Lin to become an outstanding fan-
favorite in 3 games (watch out Rubio).

What happened with this dude Douglas was the Knicks took a low-risk flyer out on him when they purchased the 29th pick from the Lakers and selected him a few drafts ago (or did the Lakers actually make the selection for us -- I don't remember). They knew he wasn't a real PG back then but with his highly thought-of defensive ability coming outta college (which has never transferred to the NBA like everyone thought it would) and the fact that he could shoot the ball, at 6'1", they figured he might be able to advance his PG/penetration skills to at least a passable level by now...Well it didn't happen and not only that, this yr in particular, these other elements to his game he was supposedly good at, namely the defense and his shooting, took a nose dive along with the rest of his game...This regression together with the shoulder injury from last yr which may still be lingering along with a lack of confidence which I feel has set in big-time has really spelled disaster for the poor guy...I can't really knock the Knicks too badly here though --- they liked TD at Florida State enough to take a chance on him to see if he could possibly turn out to be something more than what he was showing...It wasn't the worst gamble in the world at the time by Donnie -- unfortunately it hasn't really worked out and it looks like it's time to turn the page..

What I don't understand is why it took so long to identify that this guy wasn't a PG and that having a legit PG is the key to this system. Even by Mike---I mean WTF, it's his system!! I think a lot of it had to do with a misguided loyalty shown by Mike and possibly even mgmt toward Toney...Hard to knock Mike & the Knicks here too I guess (loyalty is generally a positive thing---he's a good kid, a good teammate and undoubtedly a very hard worker I'm sure---you know they appreciate all this and so do I as a fan of the team) but the bottom line is that we threw away a lot of games already this year, quite a few on TD specifically--hoping and praying that he'd turn out to be something more than what he is. No one guy should be put ahead of the team, esp. when that guy's struggling (along with the team as a whole because of those struggles), doing such a poor job playing agruably the most important position on the floor and with the season being a strike-shortened season to begin with...It's too important a position to be that complacent and that patient---I never understood it...TD should've been given much more of a shorter leash than he was, bottom line...It was clear to me the PG spot was a major problem, if not as far back as last yr when Chauncey went down (and TD was actually playing well in his absence statistically, although you can make a case that it was fool's gold -- I never for 1 sec. thought TD was the answer during that good stretch) or this yr's training camp, then defintely the first week or so of the season and without question during this bad losing streak we just went through...Hate to put it all on this kid's shoulders but I think that this lack of a true PG was really what killed us early on during this losing streak above anything else, including Melo and all his isos, STAT's drop in ferocity and even D'Antoni and his odd decision making at times. Thank God Lin looks like the goods -- truth of the matter is we got lucky with this kid, that he actually has some skill & smarts and that he's 100% up for the challenge..The Knicks never saw this type of success coming and if they tell us they did they'd be lying..Even now after an incredible 3-game stretch; yeah D'Antoni's saying the right things in the papers, that he believes in Lin, etc., but if you really listen to him in these post-game news conferences, he still sounds like an unbeliever, as if he's expecting Lin to fail soon or come back down to Earth in a big way...I'm kinda surprised by his attitude quite frankly -- this kid probably saved his job and all of his assistants' jobs. I'm not giving D'Antoni an oz. of credit here for Lin --- we should've found out a long time ago about him (or someone else if they truly felt he wasn't a solution)---10-15 games ago at least. Why the hell did it have to take so long?? The #1 thing has got to be winning ball games, minimizing losing streaks by doing whatever it takes to do so and fix problems/making the right adjustments, things D'Antoni is just not good at which scares me about him both short-term or possibly longer with a contract extension.

yeah, i don't know how it happened. Don't tell me every coach on the Knicks bench couldn't see Lin's potential in practices. Here the biggest part of Dantoni that is FAIL. Good coaches spot talent quickly

yeah, i don't know how it happened. Don't tell me every coach on the Knicks bench couldn't see Lin's potential in practices. Here the biggest part of Dantoni that is FAIL. Good coaches spot talent quickly

Then why wasn't Lin drafted?

Why didn't the Warriors keep him?

Why didn't the Rockets?

Why wasn't he even kept around on a min contract/in D-league, given he chance to even compete for starting minutes?

Why did the Houston Rockets GM just release a statement saying nobody knew how good Lin as, and anyone who says they had even a clue is a liar?

Why has he now found himself, after appox 1month with the NYK and D'antoni not just starting, but playing at a level that has surprised everyone?

Why wasn't he even kept around on a min contract/in D-league, given he chance to even compete for starting minutes?

Why did the Houston Rockets GM just release a statement saying nobody knew how good Lin as, and anyone who says they had even a clue is a liar?

Why has he now found himself, after appox 1month with the NYK and D'antoni not just starting, but playing at a level that has surprised everyone?

Lin was not NBA-ready lastseason....Lin's persistence to perform in the NBA
got him this oportunity in New York.Shump was NBA-ready....but he is not a starter or a scorer, those are two
areas Shump will have to work on this summer to prove his work-ethic. Fields was NBA-ready as a rookie....but he was not a starter or scorer. Douglas was not NBA-ready his rookie season....but that did not stop Dantoni
from putting Douglas in the starting lineup as a rookie.

Toney Douglas is a good player. He is struggling, because Antoni wants him to take 3 pointers. Douglas is a defensive specialist who can make 2 or 3 jump shots and 3-4 free-throws per game. He's not Ray Allen, but Antoni thinks he is.

A player is not allowed to go against a coach's offensive plan. The only reason Douglas is out of the rotation is, because Lin temporarily saved Antoni's job.